Aphorisms

As far as I'm aware, original with me. In alphabetical order.

1.A balance of power requires a balance of knowledge.

2.A queer is one so ostracized in youth that s/he can't possibly ostracize anyone else.

3.Art is a form of knowledge, differing from others in that its strategies include the non-literal.

4.Artists are the means by which works cross-pollinate.

5.At some point, it's best to quit trying to get rid of stuff, or trying to get more stuff, and start figuring out how to use what you've got.

6.Beauty is pain transformed into useful information.

7.The best in us keeps trying to come out. But since power corrupts, the best usually comes from the unpowerful.

8.Comparison is violence.

9.Conflict creates consciousness.

10.Dandies connect us to a higher universe because they love beauty and not perfection.

11.Destruction is easy; creation is hard.

12.The "ends" DO justify the means -- but only if ALL the results are taken into account, not just the one we think we want. (In most cases, those proposing questionable means fail to take into account all of the long- as well as short-term consequences of their conduct.)

13.Every obstacle is a path.

14.Everything's kitsch to somebody.

15.Express every loving impulse.

16.Few of us know which of our acts and omissions will prove to have been our greatest successes or failures.

17.The goal is to communicate as much useful information as possible to as many people as possible.

18.Helping is usually more powerful (because more efficient) than harming.

19.I am the pinhead atop the pyramid of others whose help has made possible whatever I achieve and upon whom I blame all my failures.

20.I’m not the center of the universe, just one of countless belly-buttons (a scar showing that nourishment must now be found elsewhere).

21.I believe we can make the world better, and I'm pretty sure we’ve got nothing better to do.

22.Identity is a variety of shorthand.

23.Identity is your DNA's marketing brand.

24.I hope my god is better than the one I am to my cat.

25.If God* were the perfect creator, he’d let us create ourselves, and then be our perfect observer.

26.If there were evidence that doing harm resulted in more good, I'd consider it. But I've yet to see it.

27.If you liked it even a little, applaud a lot.

28.It's easier to ignore your body when you're conscious.

29.It is foolish to trust much when there's much to lose,
or not to trust when there's little to lose.

30.It takes love to accept love; 'cause it's rarely offered in the exact form we thought we wanted (which is why it's fun).

31.Just trying and failing to make sure my own thoughts are authentic is a full-time job.

32.Meaning resides in relatedness.

33.The more chaotic the system, the more data it takes to describe it.
Corollary: a complete description of total chaos would constitute total order.

34.Most temptations could be less sweet, and still lure me to my doom.

35.Most walls have holes.

36.Never waste a good DJ.

37.Never re-think decisions made when you were smarter.
Always re-think made decisions when you're smarter.

38.Nothing definitely is or isn't anything. (One of several meanings of the foregoing: that there isn't anything that definitely either is or isn't any one thing.)

39.One cannot see oneself without a mirror.

40.One job of artists to lure the rich into spending their wealth with reason to feel good about it.

41.One's self is one's least malleable material, except for one's significant other.

42.Only God can make a tabula rasa.

43.The only thing more fun than detecting a conspiracy is engaging in one.

44.Only when all of us are heard, can the whole truth be known.

45.Our creations give life to us, as much as we give life to them.

46.Our identities are defined by our deficiencies. If we were perfect, all but one of us would be redundant.

47.Power demands to be used.

48.So long as you fail to protest, others will continue to do terrible things in your name.

49.Sooner or later, everyone has their a** kicked. If you’re not trying hard to face reality, you’ll have your a** kicked harder.

50.The task of the finite is to point toward the infinite.

51.There can be no responsibility, without freedom;
no freedom, without power;
no power, without knowledge;
no knowledge, without love.

52.There's always something left. (Everything is asymptotic.)

53.There's no agony worse than feeling you haven't done what you should have and you've run out of time to do it.

54.Topiaries and dry ice -- you can never have too much of either.

55.Trying is usually more helpful than not trying.

56.Trying to express truth is, ultimately, more challenging and fun than the alternatives.

57.War is much harder than peace, but much easier to make.

58.We’re all debts that will be paid.

59.We are planets, and what we bury deepest becomes our core on which all else is founded.

60.We cannot not create; we can only choose between creating badly and creating well.

61.We help ourselves in mysterious ways.

62.We learn our limits by exceeding them. (There's a risk/reward ratio here).

63.We need not just grist for the mill, but time and space to mill the grist.

64.What most people want in a significant other is a generous boss.

65.What you kill will own you.

66.Whether to lose your virginity is not the issue. There are infinite kinds of virginity, and we lose several every day. What matters is, does it get better.

67.Women do want to change men -- into what they pretended to be while courting us.

68.Your adversary can prevail over you simply by causing you to waste your time.


*I use the term, "God," figuratively.